Krizek v. Cicero-Stickney Tp. High School D. 201
| Decision Date | 24 April 1989 |
| Docket Number | No. 88 C 6753.,88 C 6753. |
| Citation | 713 F. Supp. 1131 |
| Parties | Georgine KRIZEK, Plaintiff, v. The BOARD OF EDUCATION OF CICERO-STICKNEY TOWNSHIP HIGH SCHOOL DISTRICT NO. 201, COOK COUNTY, ILLINOIS; Edmund R. Parpart, Individually and as Superintendent of Schools of District 201; D.F. Ciner, Individually and as Principal of J. Sterling Morton High School, West Campus; John Pellegrini, Frank Chobak, Richard M. Wiedenhoeft, Joanne Ertolacci, Dennis R. Markvart, George S. Schvach, and Carole Walsh, Individually and in their official capacities as Members of the Board of Education of District 201, Cook County, Illinois, Defendants. |
| Court | U.S. District Court — Northern District of Illinois |
Peggy A. Hillman, Law Offices of Peggy A. Hillman, Chicago, Ill., for plaintiff.
Thomas J. Piskowski, R. Theodore Clark, Jr., Seyfarth, Shaw, Fairweather & Geraldson, Chicago, Ill., for defendants.
Before the court is plaintiff's motion for a preliminary injunction. Plaintiff moves to enjoin her former employer's decision not to renew her employment contract. For the following reasons, the motion is denied.
The following facts are undisputed. Plaintiff, Georgine Krizek, was a non-tenured English teacher at Morton High School's West Campus in Berwyn, Illinois. She had previously been a tenured teacher at another school, but after changing jobs was hired as a non-tenured teacher under a one year employment contract which neither employer nor employee was obligated to renew. The contract was completed and not renewed.
During the Fall Semester, in 1987, Mrs. Krizek showed her class of third year high school students the film "About Last Night" ("The film"). The film is two hours long. The purpose of showing the film was to present it as a modern day parallel to Thornton Wilder's play "Our Town." The students were told that if they or their parents might be offended by the film, the students would be excused from viewing the film. Mrs. Krizek did not communicate directly with the parents, and the record is silent as to how many students even mentioned the film to their parents.
The court viewed the film in camera. The film was given an "R" rating (persons under 17 years of age not admitted without parent or guardian) by the Motion Pictures Association. The film is about an handsome young man who meets an attractive young woman at a single's bar. The two go home to his apartment and sleep together. The next morning, the young woman begins to leave, apparently believing that the encounter was a one night stand. However, the young man asks to see her again, and the two develop an ongoing relationship. The relationship lacks depth, in that the two do not share their feelings with each other or communicate well; the relationship is based on mutual physical attraction. Eventually, the woman moves in with the man, although they are unmarried. As the woman urges marriage, the man finds himself unwilling to accept commitment, and ends the relationship. Later, he decides that he wants to begin seeing her again. In the end, the two discuss the mistakes they made and the viewer is left with the implication that the relationship will resume in some form. The film also contains subplots involving the two main characters' best friends; a rowdy young man and a cynical young woman.
The film contains a great deal of vulgarity and sexually explicit scenes. There are numerous scenes depiciting the couple engaging in sexual intercourse, in which bare breasts and buttocks are seen. One particularly explicit scene shows the couple having intercourse in a bathtub filled with sudsy water. The vulgarity consists of numerous uses of "swear words," and frequent explicit sexual references. For example, the film begins with the main male character having the following conversation with his best friend:
`Well, what do you got?'
* * * * * *
On Thursday, April 14, 1988, more than four months after Mrs. Krizek showed the film to her class, a parent of one of the students in the class telephoned W.D. Ritis, Dean of Instruction at Morton West High School ("the Dean") to complain about the showing of the film, and about the showing of two other films.1
At this point, the parties' versions of what occurred diverge. Defendants allege that the Dean met that day with Mrs. Krizek to discuss the parent's complaint, and she told him that she had not shown "About Last Night." The Dean investigated the situation, and determined that Mrs. Krizek had lied to him, having in fact shown the film. The Dean confronted plaintiff with his findings on Monday, April 18, 1988, and plaintiff said that the Dean had misunderstood her, that she had shown the film the previous semester, and that she did not think it relevant. The Dean discussed the matter with Don Ciner, the school principal ("the Principal"). On April 19, 1988, Mrs. Krizek met with the Dean and the Principal, and the Principal stated that he would recommend to the Board of...
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